Clear Thoughts™ - On Strategy

The woman ahead of me, who had been waiting far too patiently while this man attended to stuff and not to her, was incredulous.

This, my friends, is a perfect example of either strategic stupidity or a lack of strategic clarity. If this is the way Delta wants customers treated, it is strategic stupidity. If it is not the way they want customers treated, it is a lack of strategic clarity.

Employees make decisions all day long that either help or hinder the company’s strategy. They aren’t robots and you can’t train for every decision (not that you couldn’t train for this one!). You can, however, communicate priorities and intentions.

If you want employees making smart decisions that support your priorities, they, and their managers who are responsible for their training, must understand your strategic priorities. They must understand that people at the counter are paying customers with needs that deserve attention, not to mention friendly, helpful attitudes.

This isn’t rocket science. There is no excuse for either strategic stupidity or a lack of strategic clarity. Need some help with either? Give me a call at 800-527-0087.

The best and most ambitious managers make things happen. I love their enthusiasm and energy. I love their eagerness to learn and improve. I applaud their great plans and accomplishments.

And then I ask about the direction of the organization. Too often it’s like pulling the plug and letting the energy, the momentum, and even the speaking volume rush down the drain. Sometimes hushed tones express concern for the organization’s future. Sometimes embarrassment or lack of confidence permeates a confused answer. Sometimes the eyeballs roll, followed by an explanation of an inept or non-existent strategic process.

These responses are indicative of two possible and extremely common conditions, both of which guarantee your best employees are wasting your resources and, very possibly, looking for a new job.

There is no clear, viable strategic direction

Your managers do not understand and accept the strategy and its implications

Why is that such a problem, especially when your top talent is accomplishing so much? The following diagram ought to make that clear:

The green oval represents activities that are highly important to the organization’s strategic direction and creating a prosperous future. The red oval represents activities that will have the greatest positive impact on current operational effectiveness. In very few cases will your future organization need nothing more than a more perfect and/or expanded version of your current operations in order to thrive. How relevant to your future are your current products, current customers, current markets, current employees, current processes, current sales and distribution channels, current facilities, etc.?

The transition to my new website was not pain free, not by a long shot. One piece of that transition involved my email, which involved Google. Someone named Jonnathan was my knight in shining armor. It wasn’t easy getting to the right support person, but I have got to tell you, he was as good as gold once I found him. He was knowledgable, responsive, thorough, right, and patient. He helped me via both email and telephone. He deserves a raise!

Now if only Google as a whole were so valuable!

The entire Google experience reeks of complexity. I have multiple accounts, each with different capabilities and permissions. I have no idea how things got so complex or why. I would love to have only one account, but I don’t know how to make the change. Depending on how I log in, I get a wide variety of dash boards and options. I also get warnings saying I am not authorized to do whatever I am trying to do. When I seek support, I get the opportunity to read volume upon volume of information that doesn’t exactly address my problem. On top of that, they send me ridiculously long emails explaining their services and changes. I don’t have a life to devote to learning how to be a good Google customer! I can’t possibly keep up with all their changes. I’d love to think they really had my best interests at heart, but I don’t believe it. (more…)

The snowplow drivers must believe that destroying mailboxes and bending paper boxes is their right and duty. We are not surprised. I guess it comes with the territory. But if there were an alternative…

I punch in my name, account number, and zip code for faster service. When I finally get a human being, I repeat all of the above. Why? If there were an alternative…

I go to the bank to deposit a check and wait while the teller types a novella. Why? Both the check and the deposit slip feature all the machine-readable numbers they could possibly need. Even a really big deposit requires only 10 keys including the decimal to punch in the amount of the deposit. Why a book? I am bewildered but resigned to waiting. But if there were an alternative…

Too many people confuse a mission statement with marketing. The result is either bad marketing or a confusing mission or both. On top of that, conflating the two also wastes tremendous time and energy.

Mission statements and marketing have three things in common. Both should be simple, clear, and focused on value to customers. There the similarities end. And the differences are truly fundamental: different purposes and different audiences.

An organization’s mission is its raison d’être. Strong, successful, focused organizations, whether for-profit or non-profit, are clear about how they wish to improve the condition of their clients, customers, members, or target populations. It doesn’t matter whether you are:

I recently re-upped for a service I had temporarily suspended. As a good paying customer, I expected a quick email to be sufficient. Nope! The response I received put the work back on me to sign up all over again.

So guess what? I am not signed up yet!

And I may not be signed up tomorrow either.

Make it easy for your customers to buy from you. If you make it hard, they might not bother!

My website upgrade is perched high and dry on a rock. I contacted a new, highly recommended, incredibly successful developer, at least according to his website, to see if he could ease it off the rock without undue damage and send it once again into the swift current of progress.

This developer made and broke three successive promises before I even received a proposal. Web developers are notorious for being late. Breaking your own deadlines so early in the game is a deadly mistake.

The proposal contained nothing but standard, mostly irrelevant content except for two introductory paragraphs indicating that the content was mostly standard and a slight reduction from their standard flat fee. This proposal, which added (more…)

Strategic planning is an oxymoron. Throwing these two words around together constantly has done a lot of damage. When I help clients with “strategic planning,” I have to undo a lot of that harm. The distinction between strategy and planning is critical, especially if your goal is to create a compelling and successful future.

It looked like spam. Yet the company and address below the name looked legitimate. Furthermore, it arrived while I was on the phone with another person at the same company. So I forwarded the email to my contact. Dayne got back to me with this: (more…)

Leaders Rave About Ann:

I’ve done a lot of strategic planning, board retreats, and other facilitated activities, and I’ve never worked with anyone else who comes close to bringing the same value to the table as Ann Latham does.

I would readily recommend Ann. She is extremely effective in leading a group in strategy and problem solving. She is also flexible and easy to work with. I found this to be true during our planning and our two days together as a group.

Leaders Rave About Ann:

I’ve done a lot of strategic planning, board retreats, and other facilitated activities, and I’ve never worked with anyone else who comes close to bringing the same value to the table as Ann Latham does.